If there's anyone in the building trade in that area, they've got a veritable goldmine coming their way. Volcanic ash can be used to make a cheap, strong concrete that will also set underwater. It's also one of the hardiest, which is good for a northern climate.

The ancient romans managed to collect it. What makes you think we can't? The bulk of it will be within three miles of the volcano, besides. Hell, I have a vial of ash from Mt. St. Helens' eruption around 25 years ago as a souvenier, and it's far more valuable as underwater concrete than as souveniers...

It will be more amazing when Yellowstone blows its top again. I'm sure you will know if you live within 50 miles of that because you will be killed by falling rock. You will also know if you live thousands of miles east due to the rain of ash.

Web cam has been having network problems since March 5, they updated the image at 08:33 PST March 8 along with a message saying the netwrok problem was 30 miles from the camera and that it was being worked on. Of course, with the new activity, I suspect such work may be halted.

In addition to producing tephra, magmatic eruptions of Mt. Rainier can produce lava flows or pyroclastic flows (fast-moving, hot, lethal avalanches of volcanic fragments and gas). The direct effects of such flows are to be expected on and near the steep flanks of Mt. Rainier, largely within the boundaries of Mt. Rainier Nati

I'd be interested in hearing about the new technology since then as well as what they plan to do.

In the wake of the disastrous 1980 eruption, the government has been stockpiling hundreds of thousands of tons of baking soda in depots all along the Cascade Range.

The plan to combat future eruptions is to utilize a fleet of C-130 transports to bombard the volcanoes with massive quantities of baking soda. When the blanket of baking soda combines with the acidic volcanic gasses and melting snowcaps, it will

This happened before...quite recently in the grand scheme of things. Lives were lost, lives were ruined, towns destroyed. There's a small vial of dust sitting on a shelf in my parents' house.

If by "this" you mean today's steam-and-ash explosion, and by "before" you mean the 1980 lateral blast (plinian eruption), you are wrong.

Relatively, "this" was a firecracker and the 1980 eruption was a stick of dynamite.

I'd be interested in hearing about the new technology since then as well as what they plan to do. Detailed info seems scarce on the geological site.

New technology really isn't what's making a difference. GPS clinometers are nice, but keep in mind that in 1980 there was a visible bulge on the side of the mountain before the lateral blast. At the time, nobody figured it'd suddenly fall away and do what it did.

Specifically, magma with a high gas content was building up inside the mountain due to a plugged vent. It caused visible (to the naked eye) surface deformation on the flank of the hill. Eventually, the slope of this deformation reached a critical point. Finally, coincidentally with a magnitude 5 earthquake, the unstable slope collapsed. This released the pressure on the gas-filled magma, causing instant degassing. Very much like popping the cork on a hot bottle of champaigne.

What happened today was either a dome collapse or a minor stoppage that was overcome. A very small event.

Mostly what's changed since 1980 is refined observation and monitoring. Believe me, they are watching for deformation, along with other factors that indicate the character of the eruption sequence. These factors include gas concentrations, surface temperature, lava extrusion rates, seismicity, and others. Instruments to monitor most of these existed in rudimentary form in 1980, they just weren't used like they are today. The huge eruption was a wake-up call: Monitoring and observation are key.

Today's monitoring instruments are most certainly refined, of course, as technology has progressed. Accuracy has improved quite a bit, and information exchange in the age of the internet and digital communications has improved monitoring quite a bit.

As for current monitoring technology, geophones that detect low-frequency tremors that indicate rising magma are now emplaced on the mountain and GPS clinometers measure surface deformation on the new dome and sides of the mountain. Regular flyovers also measure surface deformation with LIDAR, sense gas presense of carbon dioxide and sulfur compounds, and measure surface temperature.

As for what "they" (the USGS is whom I presume you mean) plan to do, I imagine it is sit down and watch, issuing warnings if and when they are needed.

Disclaimer: I am not a USGS employee, I'm a geek who considered a major in, but took a minor in Geology.

As for what "they" (the USGS is whom I presume you mean) plan to do, I imagine it is sit down and watch, issuing warnings if and when they are needed.

I read a book about Mt. Rainier (or as we call it up here, "The Mountain") in which the story was told of a USGS person who had to lay low in Orting as the bearer of bad news. He had been trying to get people to prepare for the possibility of a lahar like the Electron, which went right through where Orting now is. They asked him, "What can we do?" He said, "

I wonder if anybody lives at the top of a cliff near by a commonly flooding river(waterfall perhaps) With an active volcano nearby...

Personally, I live in a flood plane but we're relatively well protected by a massive "floodway" that routes floodwater around the city (visible from space actually. =) Other than the remote possibility of the floodway failing, we are relatively safe. No tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanos.

We did a video last year for the National Film Challenge which is a good depiction of what we thought an eruption should look like.:)
www.fwstudios.com [fwstudios.com]
It was a fun video to do and we did it in only about 60 hours. (that is, wrote, rehearsed, edited, and produced)
-Luke

Mt Ruapehu, (vulcanocam [geonet.org.nz]) one of our vulcanos, became active for about a year in 1995/1996 and is now pregnant with a lahar [ew.govt.nz]. We're probably about a year away from birth. The event is highly anticipated, with special communication links set up so that the neighbours can know as soon as possible.

(No disrespect for the victims of Tangiwai is intended by the light-hearted nature of this post.)

CBC News [www.cbc.ca] just reported about 4000 small earthquakes about 200km off the west coast of Vancouver Island, none no more than 5.x on the Richter scale.

They believe this may be related to the growth of a new underwater volcano, and hope to see it's initial erruption. This is almost certainly connected to the eruption at Mt. St. Helens, and I suspect related to the large earth quakes in south-east asia in December.

I was flying home from SEA -> SJC this evening and saw the thing happen from 20,000 feet. The ash shot up and within a few minutes was at the same altitude as our still-climbing 737. Within a few minutes the ash was well above our altitude and the Captain came on and stated that it seemed to him to be well above 30,000 feet. Needless to say, we flew well clear of the plume.

That being said, it was an amazing sight to see this huge jet of ash go so high, so quickly. The late afternoon sun lit it just right and I really wish I had had a camera.

I live in Portland, Oregon, so I saw the eruption when it was taking place from my front porch.

It really wasn't very exciting. It was just a bunch of smoke and steam, around the size of several a few months ago.

Despite it being the sole story on the local news, nobody is going to die or even be injured. Nobody is going to care after tomorrow.

The volcano is regrowing a lava dome, and the dome is increasing in size. There's no visible lava, or anything more than the normal pickup truck worth of rock that's been added to the dome every second since October.

I live in Beaverton, and while I couldn't see the peak (hidden behind the West Hills), I could tell the plume was a _lot_ bigger than any of the others since it started up again.

Plus, from what I've heard, the dome is growing at the rate of a dump truck load each second (gotta be an order of magnitude more than a pickup truck). If it keeps up at this rate, then the new dome will be peeking above the rim within a few years.

Months after the preliminary signs starting showing, Washington State's Mount St. Helens is sending a plume of steam and ash 7,600 metres into the air.

It's incorrect to imply, as the posting does, that the earlier activity is "preliminary", and that now the real action is going to get going. We are, in all likelihood, in a dome-building phase. It will have natural variation, times of activity and times of quiescence, just as the volcanic system has on a geologic time scale. There is no reason to expect a large explosive event in the near future.

Probably aren't any yet. Any flow should have been confined to the crater and obscured by ash and steam. The event came just before local sunset. Things may be clearer in the morning.

The Mt. St. Helens webcam sometimes picks up the infared glow of exposed lava after dark. It went offline Friday, but service was fortunately restored this afternoon -- just hours before St. Helens burped. Check to see whatever can be seen here [fs.fed.us]. My site also has some background [paperfrog.com] on the webcam.

There shouldn't be any visible lava flow. The best you will get is possibly a bit of lava oozing out at the surface - probably already crusted over, so it would just look like a rock with growing cracks.
It has to do with the lava type. The lava in Hawaii, that flows very well, has much less dissolved gases and is at a higher tempurature than the lava in Mt. St. Helens.
The dissolved gases is the really important part that make it more explosive. As a gaseous magma rises towards the surface, the pressu

As far as I understand it (not very far...) the pacific countries had spent a large amount of time and money in the past to establish monitoring centres, distribute contact details etc. In the Indian basin no such cooperation and preparation had been enacted.

If someone contributes time and money in establishing such a system and THEN isn't issued timely notifications then they are entitled to feel disgruntled. If they have done nothing and gotten nothing then should they be surpris

Best joke/cartoon about it was during the 1980s eruptive sequence. A guy is standing in a ticket booth with a steaming volcano behind him and what's supposed to be a ski lift running up one side. The sign says "Mt. St. Helens Ski Area". The caption reads, "Sure we know how to make it stop but did you ever try to find a female virgin at a ski area?"